


there's chemistry between us

by TocV12



Series: High School Drabbles [1]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Implied mimo, squint for chaeyu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 23:57:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17334794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TocV12/pseuds/TocV12
Summary: Sana should be studying for her next chemistry test, not spending her time trying to think up ways to make her cute lab partner fall for her.





	there's chemistry between us

It’s 10:36 PM according to the clock on her desk, and Sana just wishes chemistry was a lot easier.

Not the actual subject, mind you. Sana finds chemistry class to be inexorably dull. Chemical equilibrium? Easy. Acid-base reactions? Even easier. Le Chatelier’s Principle? Piece of cake. (She’d sleep in the class, but then Mina might actually kill her, and Sana already knows Momo would bring her back from the dead just to murder her again for landing her girlfriend in jail).

No, AP chemistry with Professor Park isn’t the problem. The problem is the fact that the course requires after school labs every other week. And of course, being a sensible, no nonsense type of teacher who knows from years of teaching experience not to trust her students with any sort of decision requiring responsibility, Professor Park had assigned lab partners on the first day of class. 

And of course, out of the 25 other students she could’ve been paired with, Sana’s chosen lab partner for the fall semester was a certain Kim Dahyun.

Dahyun, the super smart sophomore who had managed to test into a difficult course designed for juniors and seniors who were at the top of their class in academics. 

Dahyun, the cute girl who was also captain of their school’s debate club and a member of the academic decathlon team, not to mention a talented pianist and dancer.

Dahyun, who smiles at Sana from her seat next to Chaeyoung and Tzuyu during lunch when she catches the older girl staring every day.

Sweet, adorable, perfect Dahyun, who Sana may or may not have a giant crush on (If you ask her, Sana would refuse to answer, but her rapidly reddening cheeks said more than enough). 

Yeah, two and a half hours with her crush after school was going to kill her. At least, that’s what Sana had initially thought. 

And she was somewhat right- every time Dahyun so much as looked at her, Sana would undergo the rapid transition from “suave, charming, flirty” Minatozaki Sana- the girl who could make the hearts of both boys and girls skip a beat with a single look- to a shy, blushing, stuttering mess.

(“Well you know what they say,” Momo begins with a smirk when Sana voices her predicament at a sleepover one Friday night. “Karma’s a b- bagel.” And Sana knows Momo would’ve said something else, had Mina not coughed pointedly).

But it’s halfway into November, so Sana thinks it’s safe to say she’s still alive and kicking, even if Dahyun is inadvertently trying to kill her with how cute she is. 

Her phone screen lights up, and Sana quickly grabs it, eager for a distraction.

"Jihyo-ah! What's up!" She asks, clutching her phone with her left hand, lazily twirling a pen with her right. She hears an answering chuckle in response, before the sound of her best friend’s voice fills her ear. 

“Just finally finished that essay Professor Im assigned to us. Thought I’d call and see what you were up to.” Sana glances down at the open notebook lying on her desk in front of her.

“I’m finishing up some chem homework right now.” She compliments herself silently for coming up with a believable excuse.

There’s a brief moment of silence before Jihyo replies. “Sana,” the younger girl begins, a note of amusement present in the voice coming from Sana’s phone. The older girl hums in response. “We didn’t have chem homework today.” 

Sana blinks. Maybe her believable excuse wasn’t so great after all. “I know that,” she laughs awkwardly, trying to rapidly come up with another excuse. “I’m just trying to get a head start on studying for the test on Friday. You know, so I don’t have to do that much Thursday.” 

There’s another pause in the conversation, and Sana silently prays that Jihyo doesn’t call her bluff. She really doesn’t want to experience the guaranteed embarrassment revealing what she’s been doing the past hour or so would cause. 

“Sana, you know I love you,” Jihyo says, and Sana can already see the smirk on her best friend’s face. “But you and I both know there’s nothing in the world that can make you start studying before the night before a test, and there’s no way in hell that you’d study for anything in chem, so spill.”

Sana doesn’t speak, opting to take another glance at the open page in front of her. The page currently titled “Ways to Win Dahyunnie’s Heart” in obnoxiously purple lettering, followed by a series of small hearts.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been daydreaming about Dahyun again.” Sana already knows Jihyo’s enjoying this conversation way more than she should.

“I’m not daydreaming about Dahyun,” Sana protests, eyes trained on the page in front of her. 

There’s a lull in the conversation before Jihyo replies. “What are you doing right now then?” And Sana curses under her breath, because Jihyo is using that voice (Jeong calls it the God Jihyo voice, one that nobody can lie to. Momo calls it the “tell me the truth or I’ll eat you” voice). 

“I’m brainstorming,” she declares petulantly. She waits for Jihyo’s impatient “For what?” before she finally admits defeat. 

“I’m trying to come up with ways to tell Dahyun I like her,” Sana grumbles out, not at all amused at Jihyo’s snort of laughter.

“Isn’t she your chem lab partner?” Jihyo is clearly entertained, if the continued snickers are any indication. “And isn’t she a year below us?”

Sana groans, throwing her phone down on the desk and covering her face. To her dismay, Jihyo’s voice continues to flow through her phone.

“Never knew you had a thing for younger girls, unnie. Should I be worried?” Jihyo is relentless with her teasing.

“Why are you like this,” Sana bites out, picking her phone back up reluctantly. Jihyo simply laughs once more.

“Well, I promised I’d call Nayeon to work on our econ project, so I’m gonna leave you to your pining. Try to sleep before three! No use in spending all your time thinking about your crush!” And before Sana can properly give the younger girl a piece of her mind, Jihyo hangs up. 

 

“Okay, so I’ve been thinking,” Sana begins during lunch the next day, seated comfortably in her usual spot between Jihyo and Mina.

“That’s a first,” Momo mutters under her breath (but still loud enough for the rest of the table to hear). To her right, Nayeon snickers appreciatively. Sana continues on, undeterred.

“You guys know my chem lab partner, right? Dahyun?” She pauses, waiting for a response from the group.

“The one you won’t stop talking about?” Jeongyeon asks, raising an eyebrow. Sana takes a moment to digest the question before nodding rapidly in agreement.

“Well, I really like her.” Sana doesn’t really know what she expected from her friends after her confession- maybe a few surprised looks and words of encouragement from her amazing, caring friends- but she’s met with blank looks and Momo’s withering “Yes, we know. You’ve only told us a few thousand times.” 

And if Sana has to rein in the impulse to strangle the other Japanese girl by reminding herself that they’ve been friends since kindergarten, and that more than ten years of friendship isn’t worth losing over a few extremely rude comments, she’ll never admit it. 

She simply huffs, pouting in Momo’s direction before continuing yet again. “And I’ve been trying to come up with ways to confess to her without sounding like a total idiot.” (Momo opens her mouth again, most likely to comment something along the lines of “That might be hard,” before Mina leans towards her and nudges her gently. Momo closes her mouth without any sort of disparaging remark, and Sana is reminded why Mina is her favorite out of their friend group).

Sana sees Nayeon’s raised eyebrow as a sign to continue. “I mean, I obviously don’t want to just say ‘hey, I like you’ after chem labs or something. I want to do something cute and memorable.”

The whole table of six becomes unusually quiet, all deep in thought. Nayeon is the first one to break the silence, and Sana can only feel dread and a sense of impending doom when she sees the smirk on the oldest girl’s face.

“Jeong, Momo, do you remember what we were talking about yesterday?” Momo frowns, shaking her head. Sana watches, sufficiently intrigued when Jeongyeon begins snickering uncontrollably.

“You mean the pick up lines?” Jeongyeon manages to choke out. Momo lets out a soft “Oh, that” when Nayeon nods her head. The rest of the table looks at her expectantly.

Nayeon turns to face Sana, her smug smirk still present. “What do you think about giving those a try?” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. 

“You could think of some about chemistry since you two are lab partners or something,” Jeongyeon adds. 

“What about, wanna go out with me? Cuz I have my ion you,” Nayeon shouts the last line triumphantly, and Sana actually wants to die when the rest of the table breaks out into fits of laughter.

“Do you have 11 protons? Cuz you’re so damn fine,” is Jeongyeon’s contribution. Sana sends Mina a pleading look and mouths ‘help.’ 

“Guys, I don’t” Mina begins, but the other girls start shouting out other lines.

“I don’t think gravity is the reason I’m falling for you.” Momo follows her statement with a badly timed wink at Jeongyeon, who shoves her away. 

“Yah! That’s not even chem,” Sana protests helplessly. She mentally lists the reasons why she actually likes her friends before Jihyo takes pity on her.

“I don’t think pick up lines are the best way to let someone know you like them.” She’s met with a chorus of boos and hollers, and soon Nayeon, Momo, Jeongyeon, and Jihyo are arguing at the top of their lungs about the effectiveness of pick up lines in asking someone out.

“Sana, as your voice of reason, I forbid you from using any one of those horrible pick up lines on Dahyun.” Mina’s quiet but assertive voice fills her ear, and Sana agrees wholeheartedly with the other girl.

The shrill sound of a bell fills the air, and Sana sighs despondently, realizing that their lunch discussion has accumulated to nothing productive, and that once again, she’s back to square one.

 

“Mina,” Sana whispers later during fifth period, bored out of her mind and eager for some sort of distraction. To her left, the girl whose attention she has been trying to capture mouths a distracted “what,” eyes still faced towards the front of the classroom. 

Sana is normally grateful that Mina pays attention during class, (as Sana has affectionately nicknamed fifth period biology “nap time part 2”) but sometimes she wishes her friend was more receptive to her attempts to not be bored out of her mind during bio. 

Sana’s whispering soon progresses into full-on, unabashed whining when she realizes the other girl is still focusing on the lecture. 

“Minariiiiii,” she calls out, slightly louder than before. She receives a harsher “what” in return, and Sana stops, realizing her friend has yet to even look in her direction.  
I guess it’s time for my last resort. Sana sighs, mentally preparing herself for her latest attempt at gaining Mina’s attention. Tilting her head slightly to the side, she slips into her signature pouting expression, eyes wide. “Minari?” The voice that calls out for a third time is childlike, sweet and insecure. It immediately captures Mina’s attention, as the younger girl knows that Sana rarely uses that voice (the last time Mina had heard that voice was six months ago when Sana had fallen during dance practice and sprained her ankle).

Mina takes one more look at the front of the room, where their professor is droning on about the different stages of meiosis. She sighs, turning so that she is facing the other girl. “What do you want?”

Sana beams, ignoring the fact that Mina sounds somewhat frustrated. “I need help.”

“Help with what?” Mina fails to keep her annoyance from seeping into her words. 

“You know,” Sana shifts in her seat, hoping Mina will realize what she’s talking about without having to actually say it out loud. “What we talked about during lunch?”

“Nayeon’s narcissistic tendencies?” Sana shakes her head. “Jeong’s fascination with Legos?” Another impatient shake. Mina pauses. “You and Dahyun?” She sounds almost resigned when Sana happily nods her head. “What is there to talk about?”

“I don’t know what to doooo,” Sana whines loudly, and Mina really hates that all her friends are extremely noisy individuals with no sense of shame whatsoever. From her position two seats away, Jihyo gives them a What are you doing you fools look. Mina can only shrug helplessly.

“Look,” Mina starts slowly, eyes narrowed in concentration. “I don’t think any of us can help you with Dahyun. Maybe Momo, since she talks to Dahyun occasionally, but I think your best bet is talking to Chaeyoung and Tzuyu and asking them for help since they’re all best friends.”

Sana nods eagerly at the suggestion. “Knew i could count on you for advice, Minari! Love you!” She adds a “But not as much as Momo,” at the end. 

Mina rolls her eyes affectionately at the older girl. “Is that all, Sana?”

Sana takes the fact that Mina’s eye has begun twitching as a sign that she should really stop bothering the younger girl and smiles contently to herself, resigning herself to thirty more minutes of trying not to fall asleep during another boring lecture in bio.

 

“Chaeyoungie! Tzu!” Sana exclaims, throwing an arm around each sophomore. Chaeyoung smiles at the older girl, while Tzuyu simply nods, gently but firmly shrugging off Sana’s arm from its position around her waist. Sana, knowing about the youngest girl’s distaste for skinship, lets her go without a fight. She pulls Chaeyoung closer with her left arm before wrapping both arms around the shorter girl, effectively trapping her in a backhug. If Tzuyu wouldn’t let Sana hug her, then Chaeyoung would have to pay the price. 

“What’s up, unnie,” Chaeyoung asks, her voice slightly muffled. Sana giggles at how adorable the sophomore is, content to just stand there with her arms around Chaeyoung for a while.  
It’s not long before a delicate cough draws her attention. “Can we move somewhere else, unnie?” Tzuyu asks, frowning slightly. “I’d rather not stand in the middle of a crowded hallway.”

Sana pouts, releasing Chaeyoung from her embrace and ruffling her hair, prompting a whine of protest from the younger student. Grabbing both underclassmen by their hands, Sana leads them into the nearest empty room she can find, seating herself on top of the teacher’s desk and shifting a few times to make herself comfortable.

“So what’s so important that you had to drag us into an empty classroom to tell us?” Chaeyoung asks. 

Sana hesitates, suddenly wondering if it was actually a good idea to talk to Chaeyoung and Tzuyu about her problem. 

“We’re missing class right now, unnie.” Tzuyu, perceptive as always, notices Sana’s brief moment of indecision. “If you don’t tell us what’s going on, I’m ignoring you for a month for making me skip class.” And Sana, knowing from experience that the taller girl would make good on her threat, knows that she has no choice but to tell them.

“I like Dahyunnie,” she states, watching attentively for the younger girls’ reactions. Chaeyoung snickers, and Tzuyu sighs. “We’ve known that, unnie,” Tzuyu says, in a long suffering tone. 

Sana blinks. “Am i really that obvious?” Chaeyoung and Tzuyu exchange glances. 

“I mean,” Chaeyoung begins before Tzuyu interrupts her. “Yes you are.” Chaeyoung nudges Tzuyu with her shoulder, but the other girl only shrugs. “I mean, Dahyun still hasn’t noticed, so I think you’re fine. But yeah, you’re pretty obvious. The staring every day during lunch doesn’t really help.” Chaeyoung flashes an apologetic smile at Sana, who waves her off, unoffended. 

“Anyway, I like Dahyun, but I don’t really know how to tell her that.” Chaeyoung and Tzuyu share understanding glances before Chaeyoung replies. “So you want us to help you since we’re best friends with Dahyun, right?”

Sana nods, smiling sheepishly at the two girls. 

“Wait, so what are you aiming for?” Chaeyoung’s question puzzles Sana, and Chaeyoung, seeing the blank look of confusion from her unnie, sighs before elaborating. “Confessing is kind of a bare minimum. Do you want to just tell her you like her or do you want to ask her out?”

“Ask her out?” Sana stammers, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. 

“I mean, if you tell her you like her, might as well go all in and ask her out.” Tzuyu nods her head in agreement. 

“Ask Dahyun out?” Sana repeats. Tzuyu elbows Chaeyoung and whispers “I think we broke her.” 

“There’s no pressure or anything,” Chaeyoung states hurriedly, noticing Sana’s state of shock. “But there’s no point in telling her you like her if you’re not going to ask her out afterwards. But anyways, it’s up to you.” Chaeyoung smiles reassuringly at Sana.

“Is that it? Not that we don’t like spending time with you, but I’d prefer to do it outside of school or whenever we don’t have class.” Chaeyoung sneaks a look at her watch. 

Sana shakes herself out of her dazed state. “Yeah, thanks for the help I guess. You two are the best.” She watches as Chaeyoung and Tzuyu gather their bags, smiling softly as Tzuyu subtly grabs Chaeyoung’s hand, intertwining their fingers together. 

Chaeyoung steps towards the door, stopping when she realizes Tzuyu hasn’t moved. The girl in question seems to be struggling with an internal decision before she raises her head and looks Sana in the eyes.

“You should tell her, unnie,” Tzuyu says, in a serious tone she normally reserves for when she is trying to prove why dogs make the best pets to Jihyo. And Sana does a little victory dance internally when she realizes that Tzuyu is indirectly giving her her approval.

Chaeyoung chimes in enthusiastically. “Yeah, if you like her enough, you should confess to her.” Sana accepts their statements with vigorous nodding.

“Besides, it’s not like Dahyun doesn’t like you back,” Tzuyu mutters quietly. And Sana thinks that maybe she wasn’t supposed to hear that, so she settles for hugging both girls before skipping out of the classroom. 

“Come on, I’ll walk you two to your next class so you won’t be counted late,” she calls from outside the classroom, and Chaeyoung and Tzuyu sigh in unison before following (Later, when the trio arrives at the world history classroom, observant students might notice that Tzuyu is doing her best not to glare daggers at Sana and Chaeyoung’s shoulders are shaking with suppressed laughter when Sana mentions chemical spills, flooding, and getting lost in her long, over-the-top, extremely unneeded explanation to their history professor about why the two sophomores are late).

 

“Sana unnie!” The cheerful call makes Sana raise her head from its position flat against the table, and her heart skips a beat when she realizes that Dahyun is calling her. And she subsequently begins to panic because it’s Kim Dahyun who’s calling her name, the girl she’s been crushing on like a fool, and she just woke up from her impromptu nap during seventh period chemistry and probably looks like a mess and maybe taking naps in chem isn’t such a great idea.

She takes a quick glance to her right and concludes from the closed eyes and mouth slightly ajar and overall lack of movement that Momo is still asleep. So much for any support during her time of crisis. She resolves to tell Mina that Momo’s been sleeping during chemistry again.

Dahyun stops in front of her desk, smiling cheerfully at her. “Dahyunnie!” Sana exclaims, hoping she doesn’t sound too overly enthusiastic with her greeting. “Did you need something?” 

Dahyun pauses, simply gazing down at Sana for a few seconds, still smiling the smile Sana can’t get enough of. “I just wanted to remind you that we have labs after school tomorrow! Don’t forget to read the prelab!” 

“I will, don’t worry.” Sana promises the younger girl. There’s a moment where neither of them speak, and Dahyun opens her mouth to say something. “I was wondering…” The sophomore trails off, sounding uncharacteristically shy.

Sana tilts her head to the side, waiting patiently for her junior to finish. “Dahyun-ah?” She finally asks when Dahyun opens and closes her mouth several times in the span of a few seconds without actually saying anything. 

Dahyun blinks, laughing nervously. “Never mind. It wasn’t that important.” Sana can only hum in response, wondering what Dahyun wanted to ask her.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Dahyun’s statement comes out sounding more like a question.

Sana nods her head enthusiastically, and Dahyun shoots finger guns in her direction before heading back to her own seat, causing the older girl to smile fondly. 

“So cute…” she whispers to herself. A rustle and a groan from her right startle her, and she tears her gaze away from Dahyun to Momo, who is apparently now awake.

“Who’s cute?” The talented dancer and her current seatmate asks, blinking her eyes sleepily.

Sana snorts. “Definitely not you, Momoring.” And she spends the rest of the period bickering with Momo about the latter’s attractiveness, what days the next week’s dance practices should be on, and whether or not Sana should tell Mina about Momo’s tendency to sleep during chem (“You know she’ll kill you too, right?” Momo points out, and Sana reluctantly agrees to never mention either of their sleeping habits to Mina).

 

Sana is early to labs for once. She rushes into the room, carefully setting her backpack and phone on one of the desks in at the front. 

Glancing around, she spots Mina already seated, eyes focused on her phone. Walking quickly (she’s already learned the no running in the lab rule early on in the semester), she envelops the other girl in a backhug, resting her chin on Mina’s shoulder. 

“You’re early,” Mina notes. Sana responds by hugging her tighter, watching as Mina continues to scroll through Instagram. After a few minutes, Mina puts her phone down.

“Is Dahyun here yet?” Sana shakes her head. Mina waits a moment, Sana still clinging to her like a koala.

“Are you going to let go of me anytime soon?” Sana lets out a breathy giggle. “Nope.”

Mina sighs dramatically. “I guess I’ll have to wait until Dahyun gets here then.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sana buries her face in Mina’s shoulder, the other girl chuckling. 

“I was just saying, if she gets here then you’re obligated to go help her set up,” Mina reasons. “I don’t know why you’re getting so defensive.” 

“I’m not getting defensive,” Sana denies. “I don’t understand why you’re bringing her up.”

“Whatever you say, Sana,” Mina says teasingly. “After all, it’s not like you like her or anything, right?” 

“Sana likes who?” Sana freezes at the familiar voice. Mina chuckles softly. “Hi Dahyun!” Mina greets the younger girl. “I’d get up and hug you but as you can see, I’m being held prisoner by Sana.” Sana responds by tightening her embrace slightly.

“Cute,” Dahyun remarks, and Sana knows that it’s only a matter of time before Dahyun makes her spontaneously combust. “So, you were saying?”

Mina turns her head to the side so that Sana can clearly see the smirk on her face. “Our Sattang has a crush on someone,” she announces in a singsong voice.

“Really?” Dahyun voices her surprise. “Is it someone I know?” Although Dahyun raises her eyebrows teasingly, Sana can’t help but notice that there’s something strange about the younger’s voice. 

“Believe, me,” Mina says, eyes dancing mischievously. “You know her really well.”

Dahyun blinks, eyebrows furrowing. “It’s not Chaeyoung or Tzuyu is it?” 

Sana unwraps her arms from around Mina’s waist and steps back hurriedly as the other Japanese girl bursts out laughing. Dahyun’s eyes dart from Sana’s still form to Mina, her shoulders shaking from laughing.

“There’s nothing wrong about liking Chaeyoung or Tzuyu,” the pale girl quickly adds. “It’s just I think Chaeng likes Tzu and vice versa since they’re always together and they cuddle and hold hands a lot.”

Sana raises a hand in the air, cutting Dahyun off. “I don’t like Chaeyoung or Tzuyu,” she states firmly, Mina’s mirthful laughter still audible behind her.

Dahyun blinks, giving her a sheepish grin. “Ignore what I said then, yeah?” At Sana’s quick nod, the sophomore looks around the room. More students have arrived, putting down their bags and making their way to their assigned lab area. “I’m going back to our lab bench. Do you want to set up now?”

Sana’s eyes light up, and she takes a second to mutter a “bye minari” to Mina (the girl surreptitiously gives Sana a thumbs up and a whispered “fighting!”) before grabbing Dahyun by the hand and heading towards the back of the room.

 

It’s not long into the lab before Sana notes that Dahyun is off her game. The younger girl has made several mistakes in the past few minutes, ranging from accidentally twisting the gas valve instead of the normal tap water valve to mistaking salt for sodium carbonate.

And it worries Sana because 1. Dahyun is always the responsible one of the pair and the person who stops Sana from burning down the science wing by accident and 2. What could possibly be bothering the other girl enough to distract her that much?

After stopping Dahyun from nearly tipping over their graduated cylinder full of water, she decides that all respect for personal business can go to hell.

“Dahyunnie?” Dahyun nearly jumps when she hears her name, and Sana’s worry increases.

“Is something bothering you?” Dahyun makes no move to answer, and Sana continues. “You’ve been making so many careless mistakes today, and you’re normally the one who has to keep me from doing something stupid like almost burning my hair off.”

Dahyun lets out an amused breath at Sana’s mention of the incident they had mutually agreed to call “minatozaki meets open flame.” She steps away from their lab table, closing her eyes. “It’s nothing, really. Just can’t stop thinking about some stuff that shouldn’t even matter.” 

Sana studies her lab partner carefully, not missing that Dahyun is being incredibly vague with her explanation. “If you say so. Just try not to accidentally explode something, alright?” Sana lets out her signature giggle when Dahyun splutters in shock. “That’s you, unnie!” 

The next half hour passes by without any noticeable mistakes from either girl, and Sana is optimistically confident that they’ll get through the entire lab without any mishap. 

She should’ve known that the Minatozaki-Kim lab group is incapable of not screwing up at least once every lab.

Sana’s first indication that something is very wrong is the increasing loudness of the bubbling reaction that is taking place in their fourth test tube, placed in a test tube rack to hold it upright. 

“Dahyun-ah,” she calls out, not taking her eyes off the test tube. “How much sodium carbonate did you add to the test tube?”

“100 grams,” the other girl responds distractedly, busy copying down data into her lab notebook. 

Sana stiffens. “It only said to add 10 grams.” She scrutinizes the test tube further, noticing with a brief flash of panic that the stopper seems to be twisted tightly onto the test tube, not allowing any of the gas produced by the ongoing reaction to escape. 

“Dahyun, did you screw the stopper in all the way?” She waits for a response.

“Yeah I di- oh shit.” Dahyun seems to realize her mistake immediately. Sana reaches across the table for the test tube with the intention of loosening the stopper, but Dahyun beats her to it with a hasty “let me get it.”

Dahyun fixes the stopper, placing it back in its original position along the test tube rack with a triumphant expression that quickly evaporates when she notices how, in her haste to reach the test tube, she had moved towards Sana, now so close to the older girl that she could feel strands of Sana’s hair tickling her cheek.

Blushing, Dahyun stammers out a few apologizes, backing away. Sana takes pity on the sophomore by pretending to be busy writing in her lab notebook, only looking up at the sound of a crash and the sound of shattering glass (a sound she has become very familiar with due to her clumsiness during her high school career). 

She looks down at the floor, where glass shards now decorate the area around their lab table. Dahyun shoots her a rueful smile. 

“I’ll get the pan,” Sana tells the sophomore, heading towards the back of the room. Mina gives her a questioning glance that transforms into a concerned frown when Sana waves her off. 

When she gets back to their table, Dahyun is standing next to Professor Park, who is talking to her in a low tone. Sana clears her throat, and Professor Park pursues her lips. “Not another mess, Miss Minatozaki?” She sounds both amused and resigned, and Sana will be lying if she says she isn’t a little offended that her professor automatically assumes that the glass shards on the floor were attributed to her.

“Actually Professor, it was me,” Dahyun admits softly. Professor Park sighs. “I’ll clean this mess up. Take Miss Kim to the infirmary, will you?” She addresses Sana with a glance at Dahyun, and Sana is just now noticing that Dahyun is cradling her left hand to her chest. 

She bows politely in acknowledgement before walking towards the door, Dahyun a few steps behind her.

As soon as they’ve exited the classroom, Sana turns to Dahyun. “What happened?” 

Dahyun hesitates. “Promise you won’t get mad at me?” 

Sana instantly promises, slightly suspicious of the sheepish look Dahyun is giving her. 

Dahyun clears her throat. “I tried picking up a piece of glass and accidentally cut myself,” she admitted quietly.

Sana sighs. “And picking up a piece of glass with your bare hands is a completely safe course of action?” 

“Okay, okay, maybe not the smartest thing I could’ve done,” Dahyun holds up her hands in a placating manner, and Sana sees for the first time the long (but thankfully shallow) cut that mars the pale skin of Dahyun’s left hand.

“Can i see it?” She directs her gaze at the cut, and Dahyun wordlessly lifts her hand. Holding it gently between both of her hands, Sana notes with relief that it’s not bleeding too severely. 

“It’s not too bad,” she tells Dahyun, letting the other girl’s hand go. “But we should still go see the nurse just in case.” Dahyun mutters an “okay,” and the two girls continue walking. Neither of them mention anything when Sana’s left hand slips into Dahyun’s uninjured right hand, lacing their fingers together.

 

“Are you okay?” Sana asks immediately after exiting the infirmary, worry evident in her voice. She eyes the bandaged cut on Dahyun’s hand. 

“I’m fine.” The other girl smiles reassuringly before lowering her voice. “But I’m sorry, unnie. I really am” 

Dahyun’s downcast expression and refusal to meet her gaze causes Sana to envelop the other girl in a hug.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about, Dahyun-ah,” she whispers. 

Dahyun shakes her head in disagreement. “I almost ruined our experiment because I was too distracted to think about what I was doing.” 

“We got most of our data already, and whatever we didn’t get we can get from Mina and Momo,” Sana reasons in an attempt to reassure the younger. “And neither of us were seriously hurt.”

Dahyun sighs. “But still. Sorry.”

Sana is quiet for a moment. “Tell me what’s been distracting you, Dahyunnie.” She releases the shorter girl from her hug, watching as the other girl hesitates. “You know I’ll never judge you. I just want to know what’s bothering you.”

Still, Dahyun hesitates, and Sana grasps Dahyun’s left hand, tracing patterns around the bandaged cut. “I’ve got you, Dahyun-ah.” Her voice is both soothing and commanding, and Dahyun lets out a breath.

“It’s you,” Dahyun whispers. “I’ve been so distracted in lab because I’ve been thinking about you.”

Sana stills, her brain working to fully process Dahyun’s words. And then she gets it.

Oh. Oh. Of all the possible explanations that could’ve come out of Dahyun’s mouth, this was not one she was expecting. At all. Sana is stunned into silence.

Dahyun takes Sana’s silence as disgust at her revelation, and she laughs nervously, shrugging off Sana’s hand. “I, um, I think that came out wrong…” She trails off as Sana puts a finger to her lips.

“You like me?” Sana’s question prompts a small nod from Dahyun. 

“Look Sana, I’m really sorry about this whole thing. I like you, and Chaeng and Tzu told me I should tell you after labs today, and I was going to but that whole mess happened because I was too busy thinking about how to tell you without sounding like the total loser that I am, and I’m telling you now because if I don’t, I might never work up the courage to tell you again. But if you don’t like me, which is very, very likely since you’re pretty and amazing and extremely likeable and probably have a lot of other people who like you, that’s okay.”

“Dahyun,” Sana says gently. The sophomore immediately stops her rambling, her pale cheeks red.

“ Dahyun, you don’t have to worry because I like you too. I just never had the courage to confess like you did.” She takes Dahyun’s hand again, slowly and tentatively, her heart doing leaps and jumps when the other girl doesn’t reject her gesture.

“Do you mean it?” Dahyun asks, and Sana just wants to hold her because Dahyun’s voice right now is insecure and disbelieving.

“I like you so, so much.” She squeezes Dahyun’s hand for emphasis. She’s rewarded with one of the best sights in the world (and her new favorite): Dahyun’s smile of a thousand suns, directed towards her.

Dahyun suddenly chuckles, making Sana look at her questioningly. “We’ve been so stupid then.”

She hurries to clarify when Sana tilts her head, puzzled. “We’ve wasted so much time not confessing because we were scared of being rejected. Good to know we were wrong.”

Sana hums in agreement.

“But think about all the time we could have had together if one of us had confessed earlier,” Dahyun says, pouting.

“Make it up to me then.” Sana’s reply comes without her actually thinking it through, and Dahyun looks taken back and very, very adorably confused.

“Let’s hang out tomorrow night. Just me and you. I’m thinking dinner and then whatever else you want to do.”

Sana doesn’t have to wait long for Dahyun to begin smiling excitedly, and she instinctively beams back, thinking that maybe accidents in chem labs weren’t the worst thing in the world. At least, not when they lead her into Dahyun’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Unedited bc I'm still figuring some stuff out and also I wanted to post this today (laziness might also be a factor oops).
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy.


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